Pick Up Thy Soapbox and Walk

According to a university study, women who wear skirts in the office are perceived as more confident and higher earning than their trouser wearing counterparts. Almost 100 women were made directors of top companies in 2011. Lord Davies’ report told the Government to tell businesses that 25% of their directors have to be women by 2015.

I’m depressed by all this. Also by the ridiculous radio and TV ads for Lemsip and Boots which infer that men are weak creatures who are unable to struggle on given the merest hint of a sniffle (and in the case of Lemsip, are unable to look after their own children if their partner falls ill, meaning she has to struggle bravely on). I cannot do justice to a description of how incandescently cross hearing this dross at 6.40am this morning made me. There was rage. And I don’t even have children. Or a cold.

It’s like all these ‘Women in Industry’ awards. They also make me see varying shades of red. Oh, well done, you’re a laydee. Now, haven’t you got lovely shiny hair and an ability to be nice to clients? Just scribble your name there, petal, and we’ll pop you up for an award. I am making a sweeping generalization here but they make my teeth itch. If there was a ‘Men in Industry’ awards there would be an outcry.

I want to go out and conduct my own survey which reveals men should wear skirts to be taken seriously in the office. Throw in a painful pair of heels and we’ll soon see who’s left standing at the end of a long day.

We’re in 2012, not 1220. Let’s stop martyring ourselves, or allowing ourselves to be martyred, whether in adverts or in the office or in the home.

It’s a complex issue. Some awards do a fantastic job of allowing otherwise hidden areas of talent to shine. Others – well… I suppose if you extrapolate it we should be looking at awards which celebrate other areas of life, culture etc. And then Women In Industry Awards do stack up, taken as part of a whole.

I dunno. I tend to be in favour of anything that exists to make things more equal – women are still on lower pay, have less power (why is the target 25%? More than half of the population are women!) and are given less respect in general. These awards are patronising, yes, and they shouldn’t be needed, but how many women are winning the mainstream awards? They might as well be called men in industry awards.

I hate the adverts too, and the cleaning adverts are the same. The message they give is “men are useless at housework, looking after the family and being ill – women are just naturally better at these kinds of things. Men just can’t help it – they are made to go out to work, drink beer and stare at women – they can’t be expected to have empathy and responsibility.” – insulting to all genders.